Initial margin is the "good-faith" deposit required to maintain either a short or long position in a futures
contract. The maintenance margin is a threshold amount that the initial margin must
not fall below.

Do you help course members and students of the many popular futures and options correspondence
courses?

Paper trading is a great idea, and we encourage it highly. We recommend that you
take advantage of BriteTrak Online to track all your trades.

I want to transfer an account to you, can you help me?

Yes. All you need to do is open
an account with us and be sure to sign the transfer form. Your open positions
and cash balance will be automatically moved from your current account to your new
account with us. You may still enter and exit trades during the transfer process.
We also likely offer a much lower commission rate, so feel free to call and ask
what we can do for you.

How much money do I need to get started trading?

The answer depends on your personal trading intentions, strategies, and goals. Many
professional traders recommend a minimum of $10,000 to effectively trade, although,
it is possible to trade with as little as $2,500. Call us for advice relating to
your particular situation and visit our New Accounts
page for details.

A discussion regarding commission rates

Many new traders mistakenly believe that commission rates will have a greater impact
on their trading than market movement! Reasonable rates are not usually the cause
of losses, bad trades are!

It is our experience that new futures traders placing orders without guidance are
prone to making costly mistakes as there are many nuances and terms related to futures
and options trading that will be unfamiliar to even seasoned stock traders. New
futures traders should ask themselves "will a discount order clerk monitor my positions
and call me to get me out of my contract if it is expiring the next day? When I
want to exit a short position will a discount order clerk correct me if I say 'sell'
when what I meant to say was 'buy'? Will that person know my name?” Discount brokers
will not do this because they are not paid to do so. This could result in an inexperienced
trader executing many costly order-entry errors. Don't make the mistake of sacrificing
service when you need it most. We are a full-service futures brokerage and are specialists
in what we do and we encourage you to use our expertise and experience to your advantage.

Contact us and let us know what your needs are so that we can customize a rate for
you.

Who Regulates You?

Good question. We are highly regulated by the U.S. government as we are registered
with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and licensed as a member of
the National Futures Association (NFA). Our untainted regulatory compliance record
and sound reputation is representative of our dedication to providing you with the
foremost in superior personal and professional service. For your protection we encourage
you to research the compliance record of any broker/brokerage you may be considering
by visiting the web site of the National Futures Association.